The present invention relates to a camera with a protective cover for sheltering a taking lens and a flash unit when the camera is not used.
In order to dispense with an outer casing for the modern compact cameras, there has been a tendency to provide a protective cover or lens cover which is slidable with respect to the camera body. One of these protective covers is of the plate type, and another is of the box type and constitutes a part of the camera body. The protective cover of the box type is mainly used for a camera of 110 size. As the protective cover of the box type is pulled out from the camera body, the taking lens and a finder are exposed. While photographing, the protective cover is utilized as a grip for the camera. The utilization of the protective cover of the box type as a grip, however, has been found not to be satisfactory in that it is difficult to hold the camera tightly due to the unbalance of the right and left portions of the camera body.
Other compact cameras have an electronic flash device built into the camera body. One such camera with a built-in electronic flash device is of the type in which the flash emitting unit is exposed at the front face of the camera body and is fixed to the camera body, while another is of the type in which the flash unit accommodated within the camera body pops up therefrom for flash photography. The former type of camera does not need a pop-up mechanism for the flash unit, so that it is possible to make the camera small in size. However, since the electronic flash device is always exposed, there are problems in that the flash unit may become scratched, broken, or dirty. Furthermore, since the flash unit and the finder are disposed separately along the length of the camera body on the front face thereof, this lateral dimension of the camera body becomes undesirably great. In addition, it happens frequently that a finger or fingers inadvertently mask a part of the flash unit while holding with hands the body of a camera with an electronic flash device. With the fingers masking a part of the flash unit, the flash for illuminating an object to be photographed becomes insufficient, and the resultant photograph is underexposed.